Kenneth Scobie Mackenzie and Rosa

 In 1853 job opportunities abounded in the new colony of Victoria, the Gold Rush of the early 50s had made a big gap in the general labour market as so many had rushed to the goldfields. Pay rates were good in the city and more so in country areas.

Two Mackenzie boys Alexander and Kenneth fresh out from Scotland in those early years soon found employment. Alexander 19, joined his uncle James Gair in the Customs department whilst his younger brother headed up country and over the Murray taking odd jobs including a stint as bookkeeper at Eli Elwah station in the Riverina.

 Rosa, too, headed “bush”, eventually ending up in the Riverina also.

 How did Rosa meet her husband, Kenneth MACKENZIE? Family stories suggest she met him at Swan Hill, up on the Murray. At the time of her marriage in October 1859, she was living in Deniliquin and Kenneth was working as a barman in Moulamein.

  As Rosa was Roman Catholic and Kenneth a Presbyterian, where were they married? Later records all indicated a marriage in Deniliquin but for many years I was unable to find any record of it. A chance remark on mailing list that mentioned “Christ Church” Church of England records had been deposited at the Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga gave me the clue I needed. 

Yes there was a record of the marriage in the church register! The records had just not ever made it to the colonial registrar. (Within 2 years this newly built church was destroyed in a storm and replaced elsewhere in town with a new church, “St Paul’s”.)

Kenneth was working as a barman in Balranald at the time of his marriage and within a year was publican of the Balranald Inn (also called the Ferry Hotel). I doubt very much whether he actually held the license.

Isn't it always interesting when well known events involve your family members?  Rosa was heavily pregnant with their first child in the September of 1860 when the mighty cavalcade of the Burke and Wills expedition crossed the river prior to heading north, creating enormous excitement and great business for the town and I imagine every pub in town!

Their son Roderick was born two months later at the end of November.

However, the venture into the hotel trade doesn’t seem to have been too successful for Kenneth and Rosa who soon headed south over the Murray to Lake Boga. In 1862, their second son Alexander was born and registered at nearby Swan Hill.  Kenneth was working as a groom at probably Murrabit Station.

They then moved back to the Riverina area where Kenneth gained employment at Liewah Station on the Wakool. 

This was land he knew well when it was opened up for closer settlement in the 1870s. The couple had been industrious and managed by 1873 to get a small free selection of 40 acres of their own part of  the station which they named “Melness” after the home in northern Scotland of Kenneth’s great-grandfather, Major John SCOBIE. 

With time they were able to add further acreage, to bring the property up to its final workable size of 3700 acres, enough in those times to be able to provide sufficient income to give their growing family a decent education - always their constant aim.

They lived through good times and drought, good wool prices and poor. The family was renowned for the hospitality.

Blindness blighted Kenneth's later years so Rosa and the boys increasingly took over more responsibility.

Their marriage had lasted for nearly 55 years when Kenneth’died in 1914 at "Cunnieyeuk" home of their son Alexander.